Upper East Sider Jessica Barrish fell in love with a man she met while flying home from a family vacation in Puerto Rico on New Year’s Day. The couple dated for a year.Stephen Yang

Jessica Barrish was flying back from Puerto Rico on New Year’s Day 13 years ago when she saw a sight that brightened her weary traveler eyes.

The actress and Upper East Sider, worn out from spending two weeks with her family, was rushing to catch her flight. While waiting in the security line, she noticed a “really, really hot guy. Like, hotter than what I would ever go for,” Barrish tells The Post.
His seat on the plane was 14D, right next to hers.

“We talked the entire flight,” the now-33-year-old says. The two exchanged information, and the next morning there was a package at her door: an ice chest with her favorite Italian ices and a mix CD of songs, curated by her hunky flight companion, who got a first-class upgrade to boyfriend for the gesture.

With 45.2 million Americans expected to travel by air this holiday season, according to trade group Airlines for America, there’s a good chance romance might be only a seat away. And while only 3.8 percent of surveyed fliers in a poll from Stratos Jet Charters Inc. have joined the “mile-high club” and had sex on a plane, it appears more common for passengers to take their adorable meet-cutes to the ground — and date long after touchdown.

“The holiday season just has a special exuberance about it,” says Barrish, who dated her airplane beau for about a year. “Since it was actually New Year’s Day, I remember wondering if this was the first day of a whole new year for me. It seemed really symbolic and special.”

The reasons that romances seemingly appear out of nowhere on flights have a lot to do with fliers’ own behavior.

Courtesy of Michelle Frankel

Michelle Frankel, “chief love officer” at NYCity Matchmaking, says the holidays are a popular time for singles to pair up because they are spending more time with family and “taking stock” of their lives, often looking for something new. “It’s likely a lot more common for people to meet during holiday travel [than other times of the year].”

She also says “it’s the one rare moment where you have a captive audience.” While many flights now allow passengers to text and surf the internet, they also provide respite so travelers can “take a breather, read a book or relax, and that’s a great opportunity to get to know someone,” Frankel says.

That’s what worked for Justin Ficaro, 32, and his 30-year-old wife, Jessica. The two were seated next to one another on a flight from Atlanta to New York ahead of the holidays in 2008; Justin was returning home to Connecticut, while Jessica was attending a training session for work.

At first, Jessica was so buried in her work that she rebuffed her future husband’s advances. But eventually, Justin got her to crack by showing her a funny SkyMall catalog item. They traded numbers when they landed.

When Justin later sent Jessica a text on Christmas Eve, she decided to pursue a relationship with him. Three years later they were married; the two now live in Bridgeport, Conn., with their 2-year-old son, Elijah, and are expecting a second son in May.

“When I came home for the holidays, I was relaxing with my friends and family,” says Jessica, a former pharmaceutical saleswoman who now owns custom aquarium-design company Elite Aquaria with her husband. “I think the holidays just make people merrier.”

It’s also easier to make nice with flightmates because it makes travelers feel like they already have something in common. “When there’s a similarity,” such as flying to the same city, “it makes people more comfortable. There’s a bond,” says matchmaker Frankel.

Here’s what to know if you want to find love at 30,000 feet.

Jen Moore, a former New Yorker who now lives in Virginia, forged a connection with her future husband, Trent, seven years ago while making small talk in the standby line at Newark Liberty International Airport, where they were both waiting for a flight to Charleston, SC. When the flight was about to land, a flight attendant passed a sweet note to Moore, written on Trent’s ticket stub with his email address.

“That night I emailed him, and the next morning he had emailed me back,” says Moore, 30. They had their first date around Christmastime. After years of long-distance dating, the two got married last year, on the anniversary of that first date.

The potential romance of travel is so great, in fact, that an app to capitalize on the trend is currently in public beta-testing mode. AirDates — dubbed the “Tinder of the travel world” — allows users to enter their flight information to see if other users are onboard. They can even exchange flirty messages midflight thanks to an offline chat feature.

However, mile-high connections don’t always end in wedding bells. For one frequent traveler, a 45-year-old investor and wealth manager from Manhattan who requested anonymity for professional reasons, flying has gotten so monotonous that he’s taken to flirting with attractive flight attendants and meeting up afterward for post-flight trysts. He’s also downloaded the AirDates app, but so far hasn’t had success.

Jen Moore and her husband, Trent, met seven years ago while waiting in the standby line at Newark Airport. They wed last year. Bryan Sargent Photography

He believes the desire to strike up a relationship with a fellow traveler is more common during the holidays, which can be a lonely time for many.

“There’s a thrill to it,” he tells The Post. “The fact is, hooking up through travel heightens the experience.”

That’s something even the more prudent lovebirds understand. Jessica Ficaro is often asked if she and her husband joined the “mile-high club” during their first encounter, to which she responds with an emphatic no. She wouldn’t even describe the day as romantic, although, as her husband points out, she was smitten.

For her, it was more about the chance to get to know someone special.

“The fact that you’re stuck up there for a few hours at a time just makes for more of an intimate conversation.”